Army contractor conducts test of VX destruction facility

By RICK CALLAHAN
Associated Press Writer

July 15, 2004, 7:21 PM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS -- Army contractors at a western Indiana depot that houses a deadly stockpile of VX nerve agent are conducting a crucial six-day test of the new complex where the chemical weapon will be destroyed.

Using water as a stand-in for VX, the workers are running through the full process that will be used to chemically neutralize 1,269 tons of VX, starting later this year.

The 200 contractors taking part in the "integrated plant run" that began Monday and concludes Saturday got a surprise test of their readiness Tuesday when a storm knocked out power at the Newport Chemical Depot for 16 hours.

Col. Jesse L. Barber, a project manager for the Army Chemical Materials Agency, said Thursday that the workers, who are employed by Army contractor Parsons Inc., performed well, although the test had to be temporarily halted.

Backup generators kicked on after power was cut, keeping electricity flowing to the sprawling Utility Building at the depot about 70 miles west of Indianapolis. Power was restored Wednesday.

This week's test run of the multistage neutralization process is one of the last steps before the building is certified and the VX destruction can begin.

Representatives from the Army, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management are observing the run-through, asking questions about the process and making suggestions, Barber said.

"There have been a few minor comments coming back _ things we can do to make our process better _ but there have been no showstoppers," he said.

Barber said the data collected during the test, which ends Saturday, will be analyzed, and the outside observers' comments will be categorized, so that the most pressing matters will be addressed first.

Although neutralization is expected to begin in September at Newport, Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Berea, Ky., said delays have not been unusual at the nation's other weapon-destruction facilities.

"With every site, regardless of technology or the type of agent stored there, there have been delays. We expect that will be the case at Newport, too," Williams said.

The Newport depot held about 4 percent of the nation's original chemical weapons arsenal. Its VX stockpile is stored in 1,690 hardened steel containers in reinforced concrete bunkers.

The neutralization will take about 2 1/2 years to complete. The process involves draining the containers and mixing the VX with heated water and sodium hydroxide in chemical reactors to destroy the VX's chemical bonds.

The resulting substance, called caustic hydrolysate, will be stored in tanks at the depot, awaiting treatment.

Plans to truck the waste to a DuPont Corp. plant Deepwater, N.J., for treatment and disposal are in doubt amid opposition in New Jersey and adjoining Delaware from environmentalists, lawmakers and residents.